ERS: One Line Takeaways

It’s been about a week since Experience The Reality Of Success.  Was going through my notes again last night and made a list of one-liners to share. (All of these are direct from David, who is pictured with me off to the right.)

You’ve undoubtedly heard many of these before; your mind will want to just move on to the next blog post, the next Facebook note, the next Tweet, whatever.  ALL of them are life-changing.  Meditate, muse, journal on them.  Enjoy!

A question to ask yourself every morning: “What am I going to do with the rest of my life?”

How you show up anywhere is how you show up everywhere.

Do you want what you want because it’s all you THINK you can accomplish?

The key to getting where you want to be is asking the correct questions.

You must abandon the following idea: “Oh, I’ll just try this.”

“I have to figure it out” immediately leads to a story that doesn’t serve you.

Stop saying, “I can’t figure it out!” Instead say, “This is easy.”

We are continuously drawing into our lives what we expect.

Your life is a direct reflection of your beliefs.

Your wishing consciously for something doesn’t mean that you’re ready to receive it.

You are not serving anyone by buying into their story. (Note: this one is particularly challenging for me!)

Inflexibility == time and energy that is lost forever.  You must get uncomfortable to make progress,.

Focus on the way, not the how.

Words are NOISE. Vibration never lies. (!!!!)

If you’re living in the past, you’re giving your past, not your present.

“No” is not no, it’s “Next.” In any business, there are always more no’s than yeses.

And, my favorite…

You don’t have to do anything to be worth everything.

That wraps up my ERS take-aways!  I hope you’ve enjoyed the content I’ve shared with you.  I’m preparing a whole new series of articles, posts, and audio that I’ll begin posting soon.

This series will be packed with useable tips and strategies to help you grow your solo business…. and it’s all leading up to a very special “something” I’ve been working on for a while. Newsletter readers always get first dibs, so be sure to sign up so you don’t miss anything! (Sign-up boxes are in the upper right-hand corner of this blog.)

7 Steps For Building A Brand That Matters

As promised, here are Tony Hsieh’s 7 steps for building a brand that matters, from his talk at ERS (Tony = CEO of Zappos.com):

1. Decide. Building a long-term sustainable brand requires more patience with revenue & profits in order to lay the proper foundation.  Decide sooner rather than later.

2. Figure out your values and culture. Again, the earlier the better.  What are your personal core values?  What are the core values of your practice?  When your personal values are aligned with your business and everyone supporting you lives by them, things are so much easier.  Also: You must be willing to hire & fire based on your core values.

3. Commit to transparency. “Be real and you have nothing to fear,” says Tony.  Zappos’ tools for transparency include an extranet for vendors, tours & reporter visits, and (of course!) their very active presence on Twitter.

4. Whatever you’re thinking, think BIGGER. One of Tony’s favorite sayings is “Chase the vision, not the money.”  Does your vision have meaning?  Tony’s vision of “Delivering Happiness” became meaningful to employees.  They all got behind something much bigger than themselves.  Result?  Explosive growth for Zappos.com.

Focus on “the greater purpose behind the profits.”  If you’re doing something you’re passionate about, everyone will see it.  And the money will follow.

5. Build relationships. Be interested rather than try to be interesting.  There is something interesting about everyone you meet.  (Tony also pointed out how even the briefest connections can blossom into something great, even 2 or 3 years down the line.)

6. Build your team. “If you want to go quickly, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together.” – African proverb quoted by Al Gore.  Hire your support staff slowly, fire quickly.  (If that sounds harsh, think of all the people you DON’T get to serve and support because of a poor hiring decision.)

7. Think long-term. It all gets down to repeat clients & customer service.  There is no “get rich quick” formula and “overnight successes” are years in the making.  It’s all part of your path, both personally and in business.

Economy Call Highlights & Replay

The response to my free class, “How To Attract All The Clients You Want In This (Or ANY) Economy” nearly blew me away! I’m pretty sure it was the most attended teleclass I’ve given so far. I revealed 8 strategies on the call. Now that the call is over, I wanted to share them with you here.

1. You MUST choose love over fear. Fear holds the entire world in its grip right now. You can choose fear, not believing in yourself, denying your power, and hiding your gifts from the world. Or you can choose to love yourself, love your clients, love the world, and know you can make it happen. Which one will support you best? (Note: this is NOT a trick question!)

2. Follow up religiously. Following up is reaching out to people you care about: the people you help. It’s saying, “How are you? How’s it going? Can I help?” It’s not pushy, it’s a gift.

3. Get personal. You know that getting personal in your marketing creates trust, builds a relationship and creates a strong bond with your peeps. But there’s something much greater at work than even all of that. When you share of yourself in your ezine, on your blog, or in any of your other marketing, your clients know they’re not alone. Again, it’s a gift.

4. Create something new that your clients really want. If you want to manifest money, you can either sell something you have, or create something new. Now is the time to use your creative energy.

5. Create rich relationships with other business owners. Don’t wait for them to come to you. Reach out. Form a community. Ask yourself, “How can I add value?”

6. Be resourceful. “I don’t have the money.” “I don’t have the time.” What DO you have? If you’re reading this, you have a computer, an Internet connection, and most likely a phone. You have a brain. You have a heart! Focus on what you DO have and use it all to create incredible results for yourself!

7. Use a system that works… and don’t get sloppy. What parts of your marketing system have you let fall through the cracks? Now is the time to shore up any holes in your marketing. Be a really hard grader here – you can’t afford to coast or “get by.”

8. Make a decision. The decision to move powerfully forward in your business – to expand instead of contract, to invest in yourself, to step up to the plate – is a decision to move away from uncertainty and on to more solid ground. This is YOUR business. No boss is going to fire you. YOU call the shots. There is no better security than confidence in yourself, decisiveness and action.

Don’t sweat the details. Just start now. (Confidence, decisiveness and action are very attractive to money, too.)

I go into all of these in much greater detail on the call, including action steps and practical tips you can use NOW (it’s what I’m known for). In case you missed it, you can download the replay here.

The Hidden-In-Plain-Sight Secret To Growing A Billion-Dollar Business

Just got back from David Neagle’s Experience The Reality Of Success seminar. Wow, where do I start?

David and his team truly know the meaning of the word “overdeliver.” Case in point: 2 guest speakers: Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com, and Ivanka Trump.  That’s me with Tony in the picture.  If he looks younger than me, that’s because he is.  (But not by much!)

In case you don’t know Tony, here’s something to ponder: under his direction, Zappos.com grew to a billion dollars in annual sales in under 8 years. How did he do it?

“We don’t think of ourselves as an online retailer,” Tony says.  Zappo’s is a company that provides incredible customer experiences. And they’ve designed and built the entire culture of the company around that mission.  “Get the culture right and everything else takes care of itself.”

Now you may be thinking, “That’s great, Elizabeth, but when it comes to my biz, I’m a single guy or gal.  I’m not building a billion-dollar enterprise.  I don’t have corporate culture.  I’m a lone ranger!  What does this have to do with me?”

For starters, here are 2 things:

1. Thanks to building outstanding customer experience into Zappo’s, Tony now has an army of happy customers marketing his business for him. (And it’s the best kind of marketing – word of mouth.)

2.Want more clients in this economy?  Want even more clients when the economy recovers?  Want to offer your clients incredible value and charge premium prices for your services?   Create incredible experiences. Start now.

The buzz is spreading about Tony and his achievements at Zappo’s.  (“It’s nice and all, but we pay more attention to our customers,” Tony says.)

“Create incredible experiences” is not news; indeed, it’s something I advise my clients on all the time.  Tony and Zappo’s just did it… in a huge way.  Now, in the worst economy since The Great Depression, they’re on the rise.  (Dare I say bullet-proof?)

Tony’s presentation was worth the entire trip to Vegas.  In a later post, I’ll share his “7 Steps For Building A Brand That Matters.”  In the meantime, have a gander at my ERS photo album on Facebook.

Quick Tip For Choice Client Research: 100 Questions

Met the lovely and oh-so-fabulous Gina Ratliffe last night, who presented a workshop on the 23 steps of her Esther Experience homestudy system. Her talk was presented by the local chapter of Ladies Who Launch.

The workshop was 3 hours long, and she had only scratched the surface of what’s in her course (23 modules and the equivalent of 5 binders of step-by-step instruction – she was selling them in iPod-only format to save paper, love that).  Gina’s content was second-to-none (the lady knows how to overdeliver); two things really jumped out at me.

“My big mistake at the very beginning: I studied success more than my target market,” said Gina. Chew on that one for a while.

Gina also gave a wonderful exercise for going deep in your choice client research. Before studying a subject, Leonardo Da Vinci would make a list of 100 questions. Make a list of 100 questions about your choice clients. Include everything from emotional factors (hopes, dreams, fears, etc) to lots and lots of demographics. (Read more here about Leonardo’s 100 questions.)

My 2 cents: don’t overlook the importance of the magazines they read. Short of interviewing peeps (which you should always be doing), nothing gives you a real sense of what’s on their minds like their magazines. You’ll find subtle (and not so subtle) clues as to their thoughts, habits, patterns, beliefs… and it’s all seamlessly woven in, naturally and authentically.

One last bit of wisdom from Gina…

“In business, the only people whose opinions matter are:
a. The people who know more than you
b. The people who are contenders for plopping down their credit cards with you.”

Amen.

I’ll see Gina again soon at David Neagle’s Experience The Reality Of Success seminar next week.  Can’t wait!

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